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Home test your way to better health
Heart disease, strokes, diabetes, deep vein thrombosis, arthritis, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, depression, problem pregnancies – the list goes on. Your Homocysteine level is linked to more than 100 serious medical conditions.
Homocysteine is an amino acid in the blood. Epidemiological studies have shown that too much homocysteine in the blood (plasma) is related to a higher risk of coronary heart disease, stroke and peripheral vascular disease.
Recent findings suggest that laboratory testing for plasma homocysteine levels can improve the assessment of risk. It’s particularly useful in patients with a personal or family history of cardiovascular disease, but in whom the well-established risk factors (smoking, high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure) do not existHomocysteine levels can also increase with age, when a patient smokes, and with the use of drugs such as carbamazepine, methotrexate, and phenytoin.
How can I lower a high homocysteine level?
Eating more fruits and vegetables (especially leafy green vegetables) can help lower your homocysteine level by increasing how much folate you get in your diet. Good sources of folate include many breakfast cereals, fortified grain prodcuts, lentils, asparagus, spinach and most beans.
If adjusting your diet is not enough to lower your homocysteine, your doctor may suggest that you take a folate supplement. You may also need to take a vitamin B-6 and vitamin B-12 supplement.
If you don’t have enough vitamin B-6 in your diet, foods like fortified breakfast cereals, potatoes, bananas, garbanzo beans (also called chickpeas) and chicken are good sources. Dairy products, organ meats (such as liver), beef and some types of fish are good sources of vitamin B-12 .
Homocysteine is the key indicator for heart & brain health, take the homocysteine test today and put your mind at rest!